Like so many other artists dubbed “genius,” Marlon Brando was his own worst enemy, writes Stephen Hunter. He invented an entirely new way of acting that revolutionized the film industry, and yet, his interaction with the insular Hollywood world was “rebellious, beyond [narcissistic], almost countercultural,” and would be his undoing. “Death finally found Brando at 80 and he went to it sublimely, having had much experience with the ends of things: He had murdered his own career years earlier. But in the beginning, oh, boy, was he something.”
Tag: 07.03.04
The Man Who Invented Acting
Forget all the controversy, all the self-destructive weirdness, says Ty Burr. “It’s this simple: Marlon Brando is the most important actor in the history of the movies. He broke the art of screen performance in two. Before Brando, films starred people whose work was rooted in the theater, and whose plummy diction or rat-a-tat toughness was all a marvelous put-on… That’s why Brando freaked people out at first. He crossed some inarticulate border of self-presentation that felt private, taboo.”